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The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
Amy Martin

Yes, post-concert amnesia exists. Here's how you can avoid it, Swifties

Swift fever may have hit Australia, but it's post-concert amnesia that fans really want to avoid.

When The Eras Tour started making its way around the United States, people were surprised at how many concert-goers struggled to remember anything from the three-hour event.

But according to Mark Edwards, an associate professor at the Australian National University College of Health and Medicine, this is not a new phenomenon. Or even solely related to concerts.

When you're put in a situation where you get high excitement levels - so a concert or even your own wedding - your brain can struggle turning short-term memories into long-term memories. Particularly when you have a lot of information to take it - for example, dance performances, lyrics, light shows, sets and general interactions with your friends.

Taylor Swift fans outside of the MCG on Friday ahead of the first Australian Eras Tour concert. Picture Getty Images

"Once you get really high arousal levels, you can also get into the fight or flight mindset or response of the body," Associate Professor Edwards said.

"The body is more focused on getting out of the situation so all of the neurotransmitters are focused on that as opposed to storing long term memory.

"So it's not unique. It's not recent. It's not just some weird thing that Swifties get. It's a fairly common experience that you can get in a range of situations."

Part of the reason people are talking about it now is because of how much press Taylor Swift's Eras Tour is getting - both here and overseas.

But Associate Professor Edwards, who is a Swift fan himself, said there is also a chance that the prevalence of this happening at The Eras Tour in particular would be quite high.

Mark Edwards, an associate professor at the Australian National University College of Health and Medicine, says when you get highly excited, you risk not making long-term memories. Picture Tracey Nearmy/ANU.

"Because it starts with 'Do I get a ticket? Can I get a ticket for the concert?'," he said.

"Then it's 'Great, I've got a ticket. Now I've got to get accommodation. I've got to get to the concert venue'.

"So there's a lot of stress, a lot of anxiety before that even before you get to the concert. And people going to it would have been looking forward to it for so long."

So for fans who have paid the money for the tickets - and even gone through the challenge of getting the tickets in the first place - how do you make sure you remember it?

Well the first is to cut yourself some slack - there is no way you can take in every single detail of the night, let alone remember it all. Despite what TV and movies have told you, memories are not a picture-perfect recollection of the past.

The second is to avoid any other stimulants - "You will be ramped up enough," Associate Professor Edwards said. And as impossible as it might seem, try to calm down.

"But not too much. The whole point of going to the concert is to have a good time and be involved in it, but it is having that balance," Associate Professor Edwards said.

"You don't want to just sit there and think 'I'm going to sit here and be nice and placid and remember everything' because then you remember, 'I had a bit of a lame time'.

"My approach to it would be every now and then just take stock. You want to obviously be in the moment, but also now and then you just want to reflect on 'wow, that was really awesome what I just saw'. Focus on it, so it does more than likely go in your long term memory, and it doesn't all become a blur."

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